how do y'all feel about this?

I am currently completing a book called FANZINES (Thames & Hudson) and have included the cover of List / Goodbye, Baltimore, no. 12 (fall 2008), fully credited in the book.

My book looks at the history of fanzines in a general overview of UK and USA-based self-publishing. As a good example of an interesting contemporary personal zine it would be remiss not to include it in any history of fanzines. The book is due out in September and I hope this will establish the importance of this form of self-publishing.

I do hope this is okay.Yours sincerely,Prof Teal TriggsUniversity of the Arts London"

Poor form right? I know a lot of zinesters don't care about their things being reproduced or used, and I actually don't mind at all for it to be included, but it seems like asking ahead of time would be the right thing to do, right? Especially for a book?

Replies to This Discussion

I found out about this issue yesterday, and while I have a lot on my plate right now, I was able to pick up a copy of this book from Quimbys so I can get a sense of what actually went on here. Being upfront, I'll say now that I have not read this whole thread yet (thought I intend to) but based on information from discussions with Neil B. & Edie F. @ Quimbys and with Ramsey List - I can definitely say that I think those parties who would like to see legal action should move for that. It is my understanding that this has already started and I cheer it on. Also I have notified Kembrew McLeod (a professor in communications at U of Iowa) who is a zinester himself (see Freedom of Expression) and who is very knowledgable about copyright issues.

I emailed Teal about getting a free copy, and she said she'd be delighted to oblige. So I guess mine is on its way! For those of you who were included in the book and wish to have a contributor's copy, send an email with your address to bunker@easynet.co.uk.

JND,
you can publish the address of the zine that's printed IN or ON the zine, not the address that's printed on the envelope the zine comes in.

James N. Dawson said:

I don't want to sound insenstive or dismissive, but I don't think I'd've been very bothered by this. In fact, I might even have been flattered, but if so, just a little. I'd also feel hypocritical criticizing the Professor, given my own views & practices on copyrights:

Recently, old-time zinester Lisa B. Falour, creator of Bikini Girl, displayed and talked about my zine .Zap!!omania on YouTube. She didn't ask permission, and I never expected her to. I took her action as a well-intentioned favor and a compliment. Of course I'm not saying that other zinesters should. Just giving my reaction.

More and more, I'm confused and clueless about what's acceptable. Is publishing a physical address on the envelope I get a zine in, WITHOUT PERMISSION, acceptable? Or is doing so WRONG, an insensitive violation of somebody's privacy? (In the contact zine I'm planning, my plan is to reserve the right to publish any physical address i come across, unless CLEARLY told not to.)

Everything seems so much more restrictive, "Mother May I", these days.

But I'll grant, the tone of the letter did seem a little "cheerily" condescending.

i sent the publisher an email two days ago after being informed that my zine was used in this book. and the email was apparently forwarded to Teal. she responded this morning and my copy of the book is on its way. there were two apologies in the email, which was nice. but then a mini paragraph telling me how "wonderful" and "lovely" my zine is. which would have also been nice compliments, but hey Teal, my zine isn't "Ker-bloom!"; it's "Adorn" and i stated that in my initial email. whatever. i just want to see this book.

Now that's just lazy (the Our Hero thing). How did this EVER get through fact-checking? :/

Amber / Culture Slut said:

I received my book in the mail a few days ago. I'll post an extensive review on my blog once I've finished reading it.

I'm annoyed by some of the errors I've already found though. Like, she claims that I started Culture Slut in 2007 when it was 2004 (something that would have been easily cleared up if she'd contacted me first), and she also refers to Our Hero as an American show, when not only is it Canadian, but the Canada government logo is clearly visible on the screencap that she included in the book. It's very clear from her writing that she is interested in the "look" of zines as a graphic designer and seems to care very little about the content. Oh well.

OK, this is a VERY BIG favor to ask... but for people who received complimentary copies of the book, could you possibly post a list of all the zines pictured in it? I realize that it will be quite a bit of work, but some zine publishers who were never contacted should know that they were used in this book.

Maybe if a few people have the book, they can divide it into sections to ease the workload?

I guess Teal isn't answering questions as to which zine writers had been contacted or not. Maybe we could compile our own this way?

Aj Michel said:

OK, this is a VERY BIG favor to ask... but for people who received complimentary copies of the book, could you possibly post a list of all the zines pictured in it? I realize that it will be quite a bit of work, but some zine publishers who were never contacted should know that they were used in this book.

Maybe if a few people have the book, they can divide it into sections to ease the workload?

Can someone with a copy tell me if Teal ended up using a cover of my zine 10 Things in it? If so, I'm buggin' her for a free copy. Thanks!

ps- I've read a shit ton of music and zine books, there are always mistakes about dates, times, locations, etc. It's especially hard to fact check band and zine info for things that weren't covered in the press, don't have much of a recorded history, and whose creator's contact info is old and they are hard to track down. Unless there are really bad factual errors that change history, I'm pretty stoked just that someone has made a first attempt at recording something that no one has before. I should point out I've worked in libraries all my life and work on ZineWiki, I'm a huge fan of trying to document things for history. I'd love it if people cut this book a little slack, most of you are probably too young to have read most of the zines covered in the zine books of the '80s and '90s, but there were lots of errors in those books as well, but when you read them they still give you an overall impression of what the zines were about and how awesome the micro publishing scene and publishing a zine is. I'd try looking at the sum of the parts, rather than just how your zine was or was not part of it. It seems like the author's heart was in the right place and that zines could use some greater attention right now outside of the usual circles, with a major book may be able to bring (although I doubt it).

There's a listing in the book. It's not in alphabetical order, so it's not all that useful, unfortunately. I'll try to copy/scan it, but may not be able to for a few days.

Aj Michel said:

OK, this is a VERY BIG favor to ask... but for people who received complimentary copies of the book, could you possibly post a list of all the zines pictured in it? I realize that it will be quite a bit of work, but some zine publishers who were never contacted should know that they were used in this book.

Maybe if a few people have the book, they can divide it into sections to ease the workload?